


The Truth of Things

by sparklight



Category: Transformers: Shattered Glass
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-25
Updated: 2015-01-25
Packaged: 2018-03-09 01:29:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3231146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparklight/pseuds/sparklight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Optimus Prime is insane.</p><p>All would agree on this, and also, that this wasn't always so. That once, he had been a ruthlessly cold and calculated warlord bending Cybertron to his will.</p><p>Optimus Prime... has another point of view.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Truth of Things

**Author's Note:**

  * For [artoni](https://archiveofourown.org/users/artoni/gifts).



Optimus Prime is not crazy. Not _really_.

This isn't some sort of _delusion_ he's telling himself or insisting to others. He's not like Arcee - if what Arcee hears is, indeed, just glitched auditory feedback or some similar _fault_ and not voices echoing from... elsewhere. 

He's not one to question.

But what is a question mark in Arcee's case is a _fact_ in his. 

The voices he hears, that he _talks to_ , aimed at the corpses mostly to let people think he's far more unhinged than he is, comes from the thing lodged in his chest. They are noisy, the previous possessors of this well of power, that thing the old one had done his outmost to hide away, to _hoard_ for himself.

Take it for himself when he couldn't even _wield it properly_!

Optimus has lost a few things in holding this power so close to his ember, yes. He's... _changed_ ; no way to get around _that_. But he's utterly convinced, he _knows_ he can get what he wants _with_ it. With it, it's a certainty, without it... well, he could still do it, but he won't give this up. 

It has kept him going - literally and metaphorically - when injuries would've snuffed his fire out, when the old one would've smothered his thoughts and intentions with his own goals for Cybertron.

All he needs to do - difficult, given, and he slips rather often - is to balance the influences of the ghosts that add to the power of the Matrix and stand fast.

He knows more about it than the voices think he does - he's dived in while they've been entertained during torture sessions, well-versed in keeping himself doing whatever it is while redirecting his attention elsewhere. For that, he knows that this delightful wellspring is both as it was intended to be, and that it isn't. It's a ruthless whip that would shape the wearer as the Matrix's creator intended if the possessor doesn't guard against it.

To what purpose, and for _whose_ purpose, he hasn't quite been able to find out. 

The depths resist him, and the first time he tried to push through that resistance, that... well. Both the Autobots and the Decepticons have felt the aftermath of _that_ little miscalculation, even if it was a calculated miscalculation. It was the moment any one of them would say that he "lost it" and became erratic and unpredictable.

That's true enough, and while he didn't find the _purpose_ , it still let him come into contact with the previous possessors, dormant until then. He hasn't just _learned_ things from them, and this is what keeps him from removing it, beyond the access to such raw power; they also, _inadvertently_ , because none of them are aware of the purpose, keep the Matrix's whip bent away from him.

With the voices awake, they are a shield.

Not that _he_ couldn't stand against the power of the Matrix on his own, it's a certainty as burning as the power in his chest, but like this he doesn't need to dedicate any resources into doing so. All he needs to "sacrifice" like this is a bit of attention, and mechs thinking he talks to the dead.

Which, well, he does.

But the dead _he_ talks to talk back, if he's interested in listening.

And what things they have had to tell; such _interesting things_. 

History and knowledge the old one would never have imparted to him, all too sure he knew best. And more than that, his ghosts have, in sneering, condescending whispers revealed how the old one made the Matrix disappear. It was in the way for _his_ plans for Cybertron, especially when there apparently had been pointers that Optronix could become the next bearer at some point.

So Alpha Trion had disappeared the Matrix.

Then _he_ had found it, and proved those pointers correct. The Matrix had attached to him like an eager parasite, determined to turn him outside in to its purpose. But he'd stood against it, and with the knowledge of his old mentor's plans he wouldn't let the old one go through with whatever mad plan he had - obviously counter against _his_ plans. Cybertron was _his_ and the Matrix would make sure it would always be that way. Whether his plans aligned with the Matrix's purpose or not.

So Optimus will keep the Matrix exactly where it is, for more reasons than "just" the power it provides. He'll get what he wants _and_ make sure neither Alpha Trion nor the creator of the Matrix get what _they_ want. He doesn't care to do someone _else's_ bidding, never had. 

Having lost his cool equilibrium or not in standing his ground, he's in far more control than either Trion or the creator would want him to be, he's pretty sure.

Especially as he knows that the creator of the Matrix - whoever they are - lost control of it. 

Not in the sense that it has free will, because it doesn't. It's a thing, a veritable hurricane of power carried by its own momentum and its purpose as given to it, but a thing. No, the control lost lies in the darkness around the edges of the power within the vessel, like a steel trap waiting to spring, or a collar fastened. It's a darkness that clearly doesn't belong where it is now lodged.

That darkness bleeds in, mingles with the pureness of the power, of the light that the power is. 

Optimus is _fascinated_ , but he hasn't delved into that darkness beyond noting it's there. There hasn't been time, and then there's the ghosts and the Matrix's purpose of reshaping its wielders as well. Whatever the source of that darkness, it's a void.

The Matrix's power and purpose is ruthless, unforgiving _life_ \- not _his_ life, and thus he'll never give in - but that darkness is... antithesis, a diametrically opposed oxymoron, an angle that's a curve that's... something.

His goal is to take control of it all.

Cybertron, the Matrix, the darkness that lurks at its edges and then take control of both the creator of the Matrix and the source of that darkness.

Is _that_ a little mad, a little bit _too_ ambitious?

Probably.

But ambition is what he _is_ and what caused him to take the first step out of the archives towards the political top, way back then.

He isn't going to stop _now_ , no matter if that makes him crazier than he actually, factually is right now.

He can handle it.

Optimus Prime bows to or for _no one_.

**Author's Note:**

> Obviously, there's no proof Optimus possesses the Matrix in Shattered Glass, but this fic works on the speculation that he *does* and how it affects him.
> 
> I wrote this a while ago as a present, and like quite a few things I write, didn't post it anywhere for no particular reason, but upon rereading it thought that I should finally remedy that, so here we are.


End file.
